Letter From Janelle
by dti
Summary: Edward receives a suspicious envelope through military post which, when he opens it, stains his hands with a fine white powder. Now, sidelined with a deadly bacteria, Edward fights for his life while Mustang fights to find the answers behind it.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist but _damn_ I sure as hell wish I did.**

**Summary:** Edward receives a suspicious envelope through military post which, when he opens it, stains his hands with a fine white powder. Now, sidelined with a deadly bacteria, Edward fights for his life while Mustang fights to find the answers behind it, shocked to find that the Ed's mother's death might have been more than just an unlucky illness.

**Author's note:** Ok so we all know Amestris is in like the early 1900s but since it is a different world than ours, and with the help of alchemy, I'm going to say that they are a lot more medically advanced then we were in the early 1900s.

**Letter From Janelle**

**Chapter One: Don't**

_Amestris 1256: Population estimated at 125 million._

_Amestris 1257: A deadly pandemic sweeps the nation of Amestris, commonly known and feared as the Black Plague. Population estimated at 65 million. _

Edward swore under his breath as he picked up his pace towards his superior officer's office. It wasn't the fact that he was late that bothered him. When he was late, he was on time. Everyone just expected it from him. It was the fact that yesterday Mustang had challenged him to arrive on time, just once, to prove that he _could_.

And, as he glared at a clock as he passed one hanging on the wall, he had clearly proved that he couldn't.

He reached the door, pausing slightly as he prepared for the onslaught of taunts and insults that would come his way. They usually all pissed him off, but he would admit to himself, and never out loud, that the thing he probably loved the most about the colonel was the constant conflict. Fighting with him was fun and there was no denying that, even though he never got a verbal rise out of the colonel, riling him up was one of the only things that dragged him back to the office to report like all soldiers were required. He could sense the way his superior officer would bristle with suppressed anger. So with that thought in mind, and with a smirk set in place, he opened the door to the large office, earning the attention of everyone in the room.

Breda and Havoc looked as if they were attending a show that had just begun, Riza looked ready to pull her gun, Fuery and Falman looked nervous, and Hughes looked generally amused.

"Hagane no," Mustang began with a smirk, "You're–"

"Late," Edward finished for him, "Yeah, yeah, I know. In figured pissing you off was more satisfying then proving whether or not I was capable of arriving on time," he lied, satisfied with how good that excuse sounded.

"I suppose you wouldn't care for any more tips on the Philosopher's Stone then," the colonel shrugged as he leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling, waiting for the reaction he knew was coming.

"What did you hear?" Edward asked, urgency clear in his voice as he took a step towards the desk.

"I don't know Hagane, as you said I'm pretty 'pissed off'. You'll just have to wait until after the meeting to see if I feel like informing you," he stated with a smirk as realization dawned upon the blonde.

"The meeting…which should be right now–" he began in confusion as he swiftly turned around to find the office still half empty.

"Aa," the colonel confirmed as his smirk widened, "I pushed it back an hour. Congratulations Hagane no, you're early."

"Early…? Then give me that information!" he yelled in an incredulous tone.

"_After_ the meeting Hagane."

"Well what the hell am I supposed to do until then?" he asked in irritation, throwing himself onto the couch with a scowl.

"Oh yeah! Edward," Havoc called as he passed the child a letter, "You've got mail," he stated with a small smile.

"Ah? From who? Like hell Winry would write…" he mumbled as he flipped the envelope over in his hands, searching for some sort of clue as to who it could be from. Edward frowned when he found no return address. Mustang perked in his direction to see who might be trying to contact the blonde.

Edward fumbled with the sealed paper before swearing under his breath and pulling off his white gloves. He slipped one finger under the seal before ripping the top open, too impatient to open it with any more grace. As the envelope was torn open, a fine white powder stained his hand and automail. Edward froze, his eyes widening and his jaw snapping shut as he pulled his head as far away as possible, turning away to eliminate the possibility of inhaling the powder any more than he already might have.

"Shit," he swore as he gave Mustang a pleading look. Everyone in the office stood so abruptly from their chairs that several fell backwards onto the floor. Havoc took an uncertain step towards the blonde who immediately snapped his head to glare at him.

"Don't come over here!" he chastised, jerking Havoc back to his senses who stepped several steps back in correction. "You guys should know the drill! What the hell are you doing still standing around?" Edward asked in an incredulous tone. They had been trained on what to do in the face of a possible biohazard threat, and no one was following those orders. But everyone seemed to snap into military mode after a stunned moment. Roy threw a water bottle at the blonde who caught it, grabbing the nearest trashcan and pouring the liquid on his hands, before washing out his mouth and pouring the rest in his hair.

"W-wait! Shouldn't you avoid water?"

"No," Edward replied as he wrung his hair out, making sure all the water fell into the trash can, "It's true that pathogens can't survive without a host or a damp surface for longer than a few hours so using water would be suicidal if it were the exact moment before it were about to die. But the likelihood of that being the case is practically impossible," he stated before continuing on, "There was no return address, which tells us what?" he asked as comprehension dawned on most of the faces in the room.

"That it was hand delivered," Mustang replied, no surprise evident in his voice as he picked up the phone, dialing the extension for poison and bio spill.

"Right, which means it's probably been less than an hour since the pathogen was set inside the envelope. Not to mention that anyone smart enough to hand deliver it would probably have already known the life of the pathogen and would have inserted…" he trailed off as he fumbled with the envelope until a dark thick slip of felt fell into the trashcan, "a moist cloth or something along those lines," he finished, motioning towards the can before throwing the envelope in as well, removing his red coat and whipping his hands dry.

"Is everyone brain dead?" Edward asked when still no one had evacuated towards the showers like they were supposed to do in this situation.

"Right," Havoc began as he shook his head to clear his mind, "Let's get going," he reminded as they all turned to leave the room, careful to avoid the area Edward had opened the letter.

Once the last of them left the room, Edward sealed off the room with alchemy to make sure no one else went in before joining the rest of his superior officer's subordinates. The rest of the floor was being evacuated as well from the phone call Roy had made and, from the looks of it, the rest of the military was making quite a scene out of avoiding their team as if they were the plague.

They headed to the showers where they parted with Riza. They each grabbed towels and an extra set of clothes – which were set aside in each of the restrooms for situations like this – to wear before each stepping into their own stalls where they stripped and threw their clothes into a pile in the center of the bathroom.

"You're supposed to–" Breda began before Mustang interrupted.

"Burn them," he finished as he snapped his fingers, setting the pile on fire, "I know." And with that he threw his gloves into the fire before returning to his shower.

"So who did you piss off this time, Edward?" Havoc asked over the hiss of the showers, glancing over towards Edward's stall, smirking at the fact that he was the only one not tall enough to see over the stall walls.

"I didn't do anything to make _anyone_ mad!" he defended before remembering correctly that, "Well maybe I've done a few things…but nothing to deserve _Anthrax_!" he stated, picking a random disease popular within biological warfare.

"It might not be Anthrax," Mustang reminded before Fuery nodded in agreement.

"It could be cholera, small pox–" he began listing before hearing a clap followed by the sound of an alchemic reaction. Hughes and Havoc had to turn around to stop from laughing when Edward's head poked over the stall to glare at Fuery who hushed himself immediately. Mustang, however, lacked the tact to hide or muffle his laughter.

"Shut up Taisa!" Edward snapped as he stepped off the step he created for himself to return to his shower, all visibility of his blonde head disappearing.

There were several moments of silence before Edward broke it with a confused hum: "I'm not quite sure what to do with my automail. Will washing it off be enough?" Edward asked, not too keen to the idea of having to remove it.

"It should be fine," Mustang replied. Edward nodded to himself as he turned the knob of the shower, stopping the flow of water as he grabbed his towel, drying himself while the other men followed suit.

They each stepped into the simple light blue shirt and pants, Edward frowning at the fact that although he had grabbed a small, it was a bit on the larger side. As they stepped out of their stalls, several doctors wearing tight fitting surgical masks entered the room.

"Who opened the envelope?" one of the men asked as Edward raised a hand.

"That was me."

The moment his hand hit the air and he had finished speaking, a mask was slapped before his mouth. Everyone else was handed similar masks as well, but at least they were allowed to put them on themselves. The rest were all given rubber gloves to wear as well.

"Were you all in the room when the envelope was opened?" another man asked.

"Yes," Riza responded as she let herself into the men's locker room. As she walked through the doorway, she too was handed a mask and a pair of gloves.

"We're going to take all of you to isolation just to be safe. You know the drill. We'll take blood samples and none of you leaves until they come back negative.

They all nodded in consent as they followed the medics out of the building and into the street where several ambulances were parked.

"We don't all have to…" Mustang began, trailing off as he spotted a gurney, motioning towards it.

"No, but we should get an IV going on him," a paramedic stated motioning towards Edward, "So if you'll just sit up here," he finished, speaking as if he were talking to a child. Edward shot him a look before heaving an exasperated sigh. He hated it when people treated him like a kid. He might _look_ like one but, well you know what they say, looks can be deceiving. And his looks deceived people more often than not.

"So, what were you doing in military headquarters kiddo?" the paramedic asked after Edward finally got into the gurney.

"I work there!" Edward defended as the man nodded, smiling with his eyes.

"Of course you do," he agreed as he felt the blonde's forehead, checking for signs of a fever.

"Damn it, I'm a state alchemist!" he snapped as the medic gave him a surprised look before his eyes darted to his automail arm. Comprehension dawned upon him almost instantly as his mouth formed a small 'o' which couldn't be seen through his mask. The doctor was somewhat grateful for that much.

"Edward Elric," he stated feeling rather stupid for the way he had been treating him, "My apologies. You look a lot younger than fifteen," he finished with a genuine smile which could be seen through his visible features, ignoring the scowl he received in response.

It was only several moments later that Edward had an IV instated and everyone had piled into the two ambulances. Hughes, Mustang and Havoc went with Edward; Mustang and Hughes stayed in the back with him, sitting next to the gurney, while Havoc sat in the front. The vehicle took off with a soft jolt and Hughes immediately regretted his decision to sit with Ed; he already felt the motion sickness setting in and staring out the back window wasn't helping.

"Do you get motion sickness?" Mustang asked, seeing the uneasy look on the man's face.

"A little bit," he admitted before taking a deep breath.

The paramedic sitting with them reached into one of her drawers, pulling out a few scopolamine patches and handing one to Hughes.

"Just put that right behind your ear," the medic advised as Hughes peeled off the plastic cover, before placing the sticky part into the advised area. He hoped to hell it would work.

"Anyone else need one?" the medic asked, holding out the patches in her hand in offering for Mustang and Edward. Mustang shook his head before looking and Edward.

"Do you need one Edo?" he asked when Edward made no indication of having heard the paramedic. It was clear that he was still pretty pissed with the way he was treated earlier.

"If I got motion sickness, I'd be pretty screwed with the amount of time I spend on the train. Al on the other hand…" he trailed off in amusement, "He used to get the worst motion sickness," he stated with a nostalgic grin, "Alphonse…!" he remembered abruptly, "How long will we be in isolation?"

"At least over night," the medic replied, unsure of what the blonde was so anxious about all of a sudden.

"Damn it, I would have rather not worried him. Well, I guess I'll have to call him if I won't be going home tonight," he sighed, feeling none too anxious about having to explain what happened to his brother.

The trip to the hospital was short and they were soon being escorted into an elevator that looked less used than the rest. The numbers 1 through 7 were visible under a plate that read 'floor'. Edward wondered which floor they would be on but the doctor seemed to swipe his card over a small scanner on the opposite wall and Edward almost fell over when the elevator began to descend; he had been expecting the exact opposite.

As the doors opened, Edward gasped in amazement. The room was huge. Steal walls enclosed the spacious area and in the center, a large glass enclosure sat with six beds inside of it, each with a generous amount of space between them and each with a set of lights above them. Four other smaller rooms just like the first one, but each of these only held a single bed.

Edward was being lead towards a single room as well as Riza, and Havoc couldn't help but ask why they weren't staying with the rest of them who were all led into the large room together.

"Mr. Elric has to have his own room since the likelihood of him being infected is a lot higher than the chances of any of you having been infected. We don't want to risk spreading the infection any further. Ms. Hawkeye gets her own room because we cannot permit men and women in the same room if we can avoid it. It's hospital policy."

"Aw come one, Lieutenant Hawkeye is more 'one of the guys' than Fuery," Havoc joked, earning a bone chilling glare from the woman who happily took her single room. Everyone knew Havoc wouldn't have _dared_ unless he _knew_ Riza didn't have her gun, which she didn't.

Mustang could sense Edward's unease at the news. He already knew that the chances he didn't earn some sort of infection were slim, but hearing it made it that much more real.

"Don't worry Edo, I'm sure that if there _were_ some sort of disease in that envelope, it probably got lost trying to find you; somewhere around here…" he trailed off with a smirk, waving his hand in the air over Edward's head.

"_Who are you calling so small that a microscopic virus couldn't even see?!_" he yelled earning a smirk from the colonel and several laughs from the rest of Mustang's subordinates before being led off to his isolation by a bemused nurse while the rest of the men were led into their isolation room. Mustang walked to the back of the room, watching as Edward had his blood drawn.

"He'll be ok," Hughes assured quietly as he placed a reassuring hand on Mustang's shoulder.

"Are you sure?" he asked just as quietly, watching as Ed complained to the nurse about how the whole thing was probably his commanding officer's fault since he was such a 'bastard colonel'. He was trying so hard to put up a brave front, and anyone could have fallen for it. But Mustang knew he was scarred. He was supposed to be. It was an _adult's_ job to pretend everything was ok; not a child's.

"Don't let _him_ see you like that," Hughes stated, nodding towards Edward before sitting on the bed next to Mustang's. Roy nodded before sitting on his own bed, glad that his bed was closest to the young alchemist. Only about ten feet and a glass wall separated them. He looked up towards the corners of the ceilings and was unsurprised to find small speakers. That was probably how he could hear Edward so easily; each of these rooms had microphones and speakers picking up and relaying what everyone said. He smiled at the convenience of it. He knew it was probably just to make it easier for doctors to communicate with nurses or the other way around, but that didn't make it any less useful for him to be able to talk to Edward.

"So, do I get a phone call?" Edward asked in a comical tone, suggesting that isolation was more like prison than anything. The nurse nodded before grabbing the phone off the bedside table and handing it to the blonde who fumbled with it slightly before dialing the number to their dorm.

"Al? It's me, I–" he began, pausing as he listened to the voice on the other line before bristling with anger at whatever Alphonse had said, "I made it on time! I was early in fact! Now listen, I got a letter and, well long story short, I'll be in isolation at the hospital tonig–" he stated once again before being cut off by a hysterical Alphonse. Mustang couldn't hear _what_ he was saying but he could definitely hear the unease in his voice.

"No! Al! No, you can't come here. They won't let you in. Besides, I feel fine. There's probably nothing wrong but they have to follow protocol. I was just letting you know so you wouldn't be worried tonight since I have to stay here at least overnight. Just relax and I'll be home before you know it," he reassured, pausing to listen as his brother spoke, "Yeah, ok I'll call you tomorrow," he stated before handing the phone back to the nurse who hung it up for him.

"So what do we do while we wait for these blood tests?" Havoc asked as the doctor unwrapped the rubber band around his arm and placed his vial of blood into his cart.

"Speaking of which, how long do these tests usually take?" Mustang asked.

"Only a couple of hours," the doctor replied as Havoc sighed.

"Does this count as worker's comp?" the heavy smoker asked as he shot Mustang a curious look.

"Maybe for Edward," the raven haired man replied as he shifted his gaze to the blonde who shot him an incredulous look.

"Yeah right! When have I _ever_ got worker's comp? Do you know how expensive it was to replace my automail after Scar completely destroyed it? And I never once got reimbursed for that!" he complained as he laid back, figuring he'd relax while waiting for those damn tests.

The hours dragged by slowly, small talk and jokes followed by forced laughter filled the void in an attempt to loosen the tense air. Everyone was nervous, especially Ed. What if he did get something like Anthrax? He absolutely couldn't die yet. He had to get Al his body back. And there would be no hope for that if he died.

The doctor who had drawn the blood stepped through the elevator, shooting the nurse a curious look. She switched off the speakers when she saw it and joined the doctor as he stepped into the bigger room. Edward propped himself onto his elbows, watching the exchange between the doctor and nurse. Something was wrong and when the connection between him and the other rooms had been disconnected, he knew it was concerning him.

"So…?" Hughes began as he too sat up, exchanging a nervous look with Roy who didn't like the insinuation the doctor had made by having turned off the speakers. He was about to deliver bad news: bad news that he didn't want Edward to hear.

"The white powder held a bacteria…Y. Pestis. Pneumonic Y. Pestis to be more exact," the doctor explained while everyone gave him a confused look.

"Y. Pestis?" Havoc questioned as the doctor sighed before continuing.

"Plague. The bacteria was Pneumonic Plague."

"Plague? As in the Black Plague? Like half a millennium ago Plague?" Mustang questioned as the doctor nodded in confirmation, "And the blood tests?" he asked, wanting to know and at the same time not wanting to know the answer.

"All the tests came back negative…except for Mr. Elric's."

**To Be Continued!**

Vocab! I'm sorry if I use Japanese and it annoys you but…well I watch the show in Japanese and it's weird to think of Alphonse calling Edward "brother". Nii-san just sounds so much more endearing. I also hate the military ranks in English so I'll pretty much be using Japanese for terms when they're speaking to each other. I'll try my best not to over do it and I'll put them all in the vocab at the end of the chapter like this! Besides, everything is really simple and most people probably already know them.

Aa………………..……Yes

Hagane (no)………Fullmetal (no is a filler word, which is why sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. It's not really necessary)

Taisa…………………Colonel

Nii-san……………..Brother

Kaa-san……………Mother


End file.
